[2][3] BELLA was designed and built by Thales as part of the Laser and Optical Accelerator Systems Integrated Studies (LOASIS) program at LBNL.
The LOASIS group studies the application of high-powered lasers to build compact particle accelerators.
[2][3] The idea is that a laser which delivers a large amount of power in a very short pulse can cause ionization in a gas followed by plasma oscillation.
[2][3] On 20 July 2012, BELLA fired a laser pulse with a duration of 40 femtoseconds and a repetition frequency of 1 hertz.
This result established BELLA as the highest peak power laser in the world (at a 1 Hz repetition rate).